New PII build. Ordering this week Please look over and make suggestion

[mursh]

Hi everyone, thanks to all who respond.

I have built a few systems in the past but all mostly older computers and low and mid range prices. This is my 1st higher end system. I would like to know if there are any problems with this build or anyone has any suggestions.

I have no real budget but I am still aiming for a relatively good bang for buck and prefer not going too much over $2000 for the full system. So I am willing to spend a few more bucks if need be. Also I am a little more of an AMD/ATI fan and even though I could afford an i7 build I am leaning toward am3 because I feel the socket is going to stick around a while and things are going to get weird with intel when they have the i5 and i7 out at the same time. I just don't see the i7 prices falling much and think am3 is a little better choice right now.

I am building this pc for a jack of all trades system that feels quick and snappy. I want to be able to game at high resolutions like 1920×1080 or 1680x1050. I am planing on using this pc for some home music/studio recording, so it is important that the system is relatively quiet. I went with a quieter video card and a 790GX motherboard to use hybrid crossfire to have a quieter 2D work environment. If anyone has any suggestions on pc home recording hardware I would appreciate some input because I don't know much about it yet. I also am interested in overclocking.

-Bang for buck
-1080p gaming
-quiet
-overclocking
-home recording (near future)

Suggestions? Did I leave out anything or is anything incompatible?


Monitor - ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor Built in Speakers - $349.99 = Already Owned
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824236047

Case - Antec Twelve Hundred Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window - $179.99 = Already Owned
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811129043

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Power Supply - $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139006

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor - $255.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819103674

HS & Fan - COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-LB12-GP 69.69 CFM 19 dBA 120mm CPU Cooler - $38.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835103040

Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - $8.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835100007

Motherboard - ASUS M4A78T-E 790GX ATX DDR3 AMD Motherboard - $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131366

Ram - G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 8-8-8-21 1.65V Dual Channel Kit Memory - $119.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231189

Video Card - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 2GB Vapor-X Cooled Video Card - $219.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814102826

Sound Card - AuzenTech AZT-FORTE X-Fi Forte 7.1 Low Profile PCI Express Sound Card - $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156010

Hard Drive 1 - Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $229.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136322

Hard Drive 2 - Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136319

DVD Burner - Two LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model x2 - $51.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827136153

Media Reader - SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 SDHC Internal Card Reader - $12.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820300608

Subtotal: $1,922.85
Shipping: $ 39.36
Mail in rebates $ -80.00
Total after MIR $1,882.21

Possible Home studio Hardware:

Any suggestions for higher quality speakers?

M-AUDIO Delta 1010LT PCI Interface 10-In-10-Out PCI Virtual Studio - $199.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121011

or

M-AUDIO Fast Track Pro USB Interface 4 x 4 Mobile USB Audio/MIDI Interface with Preamps - $199.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121001

 

[xthekidx]

Here is a review of the PII 955: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278.html
It doesn't seem like its worth it to me, the 940 is about $70 cheaper, more like $100 cheaper once you consider the MB and ram price premiums as well, and with an unlocked multiplier on the 940, it's just not worth it IMO. A review at overclockers club couldn't push the 955 past 3.8ghz. The 955 seems to be a flop. If you want to go with a PII quad on the AM3 chipset, get a 945 instead, but DDR3 seems to make very little difference in benchmarks.

 

[xthekidx]

I think you should be looking at an i7 setup for that price. Drop the Vrap, the WD Caviar blacks 640gb and 1tb are almost as fast, if you want super load speeds then get 2 WD3200AAKS drives in raid 0, it will be cheaper, faster and twice the storage space.

 

[Tech-Boy]

Heres what I would change:

GPU to 4890 if you want ati,, if willing gtx 275 is faster.

Cpu to 940 or 945, like xthekidx said 955 not worth it.

Finally I would get two 640gb Western Digital Black's in Raid 0; almost as fast as the velociraptor (maybe faster in raid 0) and twice the space half the money!

Just What I would do, everything else looks solid

 

[xthekidx]

From what I can see, the 955 is just a 945 that has been slightly overclocked with a higher Bus speed, but to compensate for that it also has a higher stock voltage (which means that its the same silicon in these chips, if it were higher binned cores then you would probably be able to run at the higher bus speed with the same voltage). All you are paying for in the 955 is a DDR3 memory controller over the 940 and for them to change the bus speed and voltage defaults, something that takes 5 seconds to do in the bios yourself. Not worth it for a $70 difference.

 

[captaincharisma]

man i must be gettin old cause everytime i see
"pII build" the first thing i think is Pentium 2

 

[shiftstealth]

I'd drop the sound card and upgrade the video card, i bought a 100 dollar sound card before and it was the biggest POS ive ever owned. It was x-fi.

 

[shiftstealth]

dual channel ddr3? whats the point then.

 

[xthekidx]

dual channel ddr3? whats the point then.

...do you understand what that means? DDR3 is faster than DDR2, the number of channels doesn't have anything to do with DDR, DDR2 or DDR3. The i7 can run it in triple channel mode, but the performance gains are minimal over Dual channel. The type of ram and number of channels it runs in are two different things. The point of DDR3 is more memory bandwidth.

 

[buzznut]

Hey shift,
The audio card he wants is good for gaming but it blows away anything creative has for recording. I think its a solid buy for his purposes, it's received really good reviews.

I also agree that the early indications show the AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 has very little to offer over the X4 940, which I own and really dig.
If not overclocking, the difference in 200Mhz speed is not worth the price premium. You'll get the same, about 3.8 ghz max oc for the 940. I just saw the X4 940 at newegg for $190US.

If you are interested in quiet, perhaps you might look into liquid cooling. I recently made the switch with a Domino ALC, which is pretty quiet on low speed. I have it on med and run my 940 at 3.7ghz 24/7. Its not exactly quiet on med, but no louder thatn the 120mm fan I had previously.

If only interested in ddr3 mem, then maybe the 955 might be the way to go. But I would be tempted to go for the X3 720 for 140bucks.

Also of note, people are having problems with ALL motherboards and dual channel dddr3 memory with the new 955. I would wait on a 955 for about a month or so til motherboard bioses are updated.

 

[xthekidx]

+1 I agree.

 

[dnaphreaker]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001&Tpk=ht%20omega%20striker

Check out this sound card. I've been using it for nearly two months, primarily for gaming, and it's outstanding. I haven't encountered any issues whatsoever and the driver is quick to install and doesn't fill your computer with any unnecessary bloatware. Nice improvement over my old Audigy 2 ZS.

You can always save some cash and hit up the 150GB Velociraptor. I've got a good amount of games installed and still have plenty of space, but that's probably because I have a couple of 1TB WD greens for storage.